A Comprehensive Literature Review of Comprehension Strategies in Core Content Areas for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Understanding text can increase access to educational, vocational, and recreational activities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, limited research has been conducted investigating instructional practices to remediate or compensate for these comprehension challenges. The current comprehensive literature review expanded previous reviews and evaluated research quality using Reichow (Evidence-based practices and treatments for children with autism, pp 25-39. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-6975-0_2 , 2011) criteria for identifying evidence-based practices. Three questions guided the review: (a) Which approaches to comprehension instruction have been investigated for students with ASD?; (b) Have there been a sufficient number of acceptable studies using a particular strategy to qualify as an evidence-based practice for teaching comprehension across the content areas?; and (c) What can educators learn from the analysis of high quality studies? Of the 23 studies included in the review, only 13 achieved high or adequate ratings. Results of the review suggest that both response-prompting procedures (e.g., model-lead-test, time delay, system of least prompts,) and visual supports (e.g., procedural facilitators) can increase comprehension skills in content areas of ELA, math, and science. Authors conclude with a discussion of (a) research-based examples of how to use effective approaches, (b) implications for practitioners, and

Teaching Reading Comprehension to Learners With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Predictors of Teacher Self‐efficacy and Outcome Expectancy

“…Evidence‐based practices are those research‐based practices meeting rigorous criteria, which when studied, consistently produce meaningful outcomes for participants (Torres, Farley, & Cook, ). At present, few instructional practices specific to reading comprehension and ASD have been identified as evidence based (Knight & Sartini, ). However, relevant reviews have identified a number of effective practices (Accardo, ; El Zein, Solis, Vaughn, & McCulley, ; Finnegan & Mazin, ).…”

“…Identified effective practices include anaphoric cueing (Solis, McCulley, & Zein, 2013), compare and contrast diagrams (Carnahan & Williamson, 2013), cooperative learning (Kamps, Barbetta, Leonard, & Delquadri, 1994;Kamps, Leonard, Potucek, & Garrison-Harrell, 1995;Whalon & Hanline, 2008), direct/explicit instruction (Flores & Ganz, 2007;Flores & Ganz, 2009;Roux, Dion, Barrette, Dupere, & Fuchs, 2014), graphic organizers (Carnahan & Williamson, 2013), question generation (Hua et al, 2012), read-alouds (Mims, Hudson, & Browder, 2012), reciprocal questioning (Whalon & Hanline, 2008), story structure maps/character event maps (Stringfield, Luscre, & Gast, 2011;Williamson, Carnahan, Birri, & Swoboda, 2014), and systematic prompts (Mims et al, 2012). Of the instructional practices, only systematic prompts and visual supports, for example, graphic organizers and diagrams, have been identified as evidence based (Knight & Sartini, 2015).…”

Positive Behaviour Support To Manage Challenging Behaviour Of Children On Autism Spectrum

“…Two researchers rated independently the methodological rigor of each selected study using the guidelines prescribed in the Evaluative Method for Determining Evidence-Based Practices in Autism (Reichow, Volkmar, & Cicchetti, 2008). These guidelines can assess the study quality of group and single subject research with reliable and valid assessment results (Knight & Sartini, 2015;Watkins et al, 2015).…”

Improving Reading in Adolescents and Adults With High-Functioning Autism Through an Assistive Technology Tool: A Cross-Over Multinational Study

“…The use of technology to teach several academic and social skills to students with ASD has a long history, since the first study reporting the use of a computer to increase understanding of how letters and sounds form words, and how texts can form expressions (37, 38). However, very few studies have explored or tested the use of assistive technology to facilitate reading comprehension among ASD subjects (39).…”